New Ernie Button – Planet Whisky

photo-eye GalleryNew Ernie Button – Planet WhiskyErnie Button's work has always possessed a sense of whimsy but the new entry in his acclaimed Vanishing Spirits series transforms the Everyday into something otherworldly.

Ernie Button's work has always possessed a sense of whimsy but the new entry in his acclaimed Vanishing Spirits series transforms the Everyday into something otherworldly. In Planet Whisky, Button displays the dried remnants of single malt scotch as a floating sphere against a rich plane of black. Combined with the artist's signature lighting technique, the images appear to display fantastic gas giants or cratered moons light years in the distance. Vanishing Spirits has been featured in The New York Times, The Smithsonian, Scientific American, and spurred fluid dynamics research at Princeton University.

Planet Whisky from the Universe of Vanishing Spirits: The Dried Remains of Single Malt Scotch

Whisky is a time-honored drink, finely crafted and enjoyed for centuries. I feel fortunate that I found the Vanishing Spirits phenomenon. I am a fan of observing my world and the things that are happening around me; noticing the smaller details that may be ignored or overlooked. The idea for this project occurred while putting a used Scotch glass into the dishwasher. I noted a film on the bottom of a glass and when I inspected closer, I noted these fine, lacy lines filling the bottom. What I found through some experimentation is that these patterns and images that are seen can be created with the small amount of Single-Malt Scotch whisky left in a glass after most of it has been consumed. The alcohol dries and leaves the sediment in various patterns. It’s a little like snowflakes in that every time the Scotch dries, the glass yields slightly different patterns and results. Some of the images reference the celestial as if the image was taken of space; something that the Hubble telescope may have taken.

I have been working on this project for nearly a decade and it has taken my photography places I didn't think it would go; for instance, scientific research into this phenomenon inspired by the Vanishing Spirits images. The research conducted by Dr. Howard Stone's Complex Fluids Group at Princeton University’s Complex Fluids Group helped to explain some of the science behind this phenomenon but did not take away the enjoyment of it. I continue to find it infinitely fascinating that a seemingly clear liquid could leave a residue and/or pattern with such clarity and rhythm after the liquid is gone.

I continue to make images as most my family members are fans of Scotch whisky and after a night of enjoying a fine Scotch, more often than not, there is a visually interesting image left in the glass that I can’t help but explore & photograph. My images continue to reference Outer Space for several reasons. Thinking about whisky and the cosmos, both took a significant amount of time to form; obviously, the cosmos took longer to form than whisky but if you think of a barrel sitting in a warehouse for up to 50 years, that is a lifetime as well. Enjoy.